Yes, you can chat using the IRC (Internet Relay Chat), or any of the chat pages that seem to spring up on larger web pages (like yahoo.com). There are Instant Messenger programs available through a variety of software companies, see our section on Using Instant Messenger programs for brief descriptions of each. For IRC, you will need to use a seprate program such as IRCII (on the Unix server) or Netscape chat. We currently have a copy of IRCII on all Martnet servers. For our Windows 3.11, 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, XP, etc. users, the MIRC program is recommended.

Sorry, MartNet does not offer DSL or Cable Modem access. If you need something faster than v.90 56K dial-up, unfortunately you will have to choose another provider.

Due to several of them fouling up horribly, dropping connections frequently, and even occassionally going out of BUSINESS (this happened to us), we no longer offer any DSL service. We are however looking for a reliable DSL provider we can recommend.

That said, look for cable access in your area. The cable companies have the infrastructure already going right to your house... it's faster (usually, check stats) than DSL, more stable, and the modems look cooler =8).

Comcast and Time/Warner/AOL are busy buying up the cable world... go to www.home.com or www.roadrunner.comand see if your area's covered, or call your cable provider. Because of so many parallel techologies now offered (dialups, DSL, cable, wireless, and multiple providers of each), hunt about for what sort of specials they're having - they're going crazy trying to get subscribers. No contract, the cost is added to the comcast cable bill (if you have Comcast, which in the greater Philly area you probably do by now).

Some of our staff recently got @home and managed to wrangle free installation, 3 months free including free modem rental, and $40 bucks a month after that. Testing the connection at random times shows an average connection of 1.1Mbps. Yes, 1100k. Downloads clock in around 100-300k sustained transfer (so much depends on the remote system with downloads, of course).

We distribute software packages for MacOS and have detailed instructions available for Windows95. If you use one of those three operating systems, we can support you in getting connected to us. If you use Linux or some other flavor of Unix, we will certainly be happy to offer helpful hints, but we don't have any preconfigured software to hand out.

Most popular sites that offer free or trail
software downloads will usually supply links to multiple locations
from which you can download the file in question. It's usually
wise to select the location nearest your city. If the download
seems slow, it's probably Internet rush hour in your area. Try
downloading the file from an area with a different time zone than
yours, where it's likely you'll run into less of an internet traffic
jam.

Want to bookmark a webpage before you get there?
Here's a neat and rarely used trick. If you see a link and think
you may want to bookmark before you even visit it, right-click
on the link, and select Add Bookmark in Netscape or Add to Favorites
in Internet Explorer. Don't believe
it? Try it and check for yourself.

Send an email from the martnet account to support@martnet.com requesting account cancellation. To avoid possible confusion regarding the date of cancellation, we cannot accept termination requests in advance of the date of cancellation. Please notify us on the day you would like your account to be terminated. If this presents a problem, feel free to explain your extenuating circumstances. Include a telephone number where we can reach you to confirm your identification.

While attempting to download files from the Internet, you may click on a link and be faced with a message from Netscape telling you that it has founda file it can't read. You can either pick an application, get more information, or save the file to disk. In most cases, you'll want to save the file to your hard drive. Then, you'll be able to see the file on your computer as either an executable file (.exe), a zip file (.zip), or a MAC compacted file (.sit, .hqx). If you don't have an uncompacting utility, you'll need to get one in order to install the files. Otherwise, you can simply unpack the files onto the hard drive and use them from there.

One of the biggest complaints about search
engines is that they often return too many irrelevant sites. One
of the better search engines
is HotBot (www.hotbot.com). It allows you to search for exact
phrases with deadly accuracy. Try it. Go to HotBot, select the
'Exact Phrase' option, type in your phrase, begin the search and
you should get dead-on results - or at least a good selection
of links with much more relevance.

You can sign up via the Web. For more info, see Our Signup Form. I recommend that you then send an email to support@martnet.com telling us the username you used, so we may expedite your account setup process.

This is a common problem for users who convert to Martnet from AOL. If you still have an AOL account active, and you try to connect with Martnet, a pop-up will open that reads:
--
Your computer is connected to the Internet. Would you like to start AOL now? Yes No TIP: To turn off this message, select Auto Start Options from the AOL tray on the Windows taskbar.
--
Unfortunately, there is usually no such item in the taskbar. Here's how to get rid of it.
1. Click on Start
2. Go to Settings
3. Click on Taskbar
4. Click on Start Menu Programs
5. Click the Remove button
6. Go down the list to STARTUP
7. Click the + on the left
8. Click on AOL TRAY Icon under STARTUP (should be indented here)
9. Click Remove
10. Click Close
11. Click OK
12. Click START, the ShutDown, then restart
That should do the trick. AOL implemented this pop-up in version 5.0, so anything later will probably do the same.

We accept checks, money orders, gold bullion, and credit cards. Users paying by credit card should be automatically billed on a monthly or yearly basis. Users paying by check need to send checks in on a monthly or yearly basis. Please include a note with the check listing the username of the account for which you are paying. If you need an invoice for business purposes, please send your invoice request to support@martnet.com. We do plan to implement an automatic email invoicing system at some point, but it isn't in place at this time.

All annually billed accounts are renewed automatically on the anniversary date, unless we are notified of cancellation in advance of the anniversary date. This is stated in our Usage Agreement in the policy sections of the affected accounts.

It's taken you dozens of queries in various
engines, but you've finally found what you're looking for. To
save you the time and frustration in repeating the process next
time, just add the results of your search to your Bookmark or
Favorite file. Some engines give you the option to save your search
right on the results page. Study the page carefully to look for
this option.

-Log in with your username and password to the WebAdmin interface.
-In the "Mail" section, click on the button that's labeled "Email-Auto Responder". Enter the subject, the From address and the message and click "Enable Vacation" to turn it on. To Turn it off, just log back in and click "Disable Vacation"

If you normally download large wave files,
wait to store them on your harddrive, then finally play them,
try this: The next time you see a wave file on the Net, right-click
it, select the Preview tab, and play it. Doing this, the sound
is opened instantly, streaming the sound from the hard drive.
The best thing about this is that no reconfiguration of any devices
is needed.

Well, you were given one of our data numbers, and a modem answered. We pay an extra fee every month so that all of our data numbers are unlisted, and only our voice number is to be given out. Sorry for any inconvenience or temporary hearing loss.

The full name associated with a username is a user configurable option. To change the full name, eg, the part that shows up as "in real life" when your account is fingered, and on your email, and on our list of users with web pages, if you have one, you will type chfn at the unix prompt, as shown in this example: merv:~$ chfn Changing finger information for user on merv.martnet.com. Default values are printed inside of '[]'. To accept the default, type To have a blank entry, type the word 'none'. Name [user]: your name here Here, user changed her full name to "your name here," resulting in: merv:~$ finger user Login name: someguy In real life: your name here Directory: /home/user Shell: /usr/local/bin/bash It's easy to change your full name, and some people have a lot of fun with it. Go ahead. Try it. You'll like it.

If you *ever* get busy signals dialing into one of our locations, please call or email us (support@martnet.com) immediately and let us know.
We outsource out numbers from another company, who is responsible for maintaining those numbers and making sure that their are enough for everyone. If we get things like busy-signal complaints, we immediately take them to the company, and have them fix it ASAP..

*ouch* that hurts. Well, if the files are missing due to a MartNet system error - eg, if it is our fault - you can write to support@martnet.com and ask us to restore them from our backups, and we may be able to do that. If you typed rm * by accident, no. We can't restore all the files that users accidentally delete, much as we feel your pain and would like to help. Sorry.

Use the 'ps' command to list any processes running (you may need to use
'ps -aux | grep USERNAME' to see processes still running in the old shell).
There's probably still a copy of pine running, and the 'ps' command will
show you this process, plus the ID of the process(es). Use the 'kill'
command ('kill -9 IDNUMBER') to kill the old processes. You may also want
to look into running 'screen' which creates a virtual terminal on top of
your shell. If your connection drops for whatever reason, you can SSH back
in and resume your screen session ('screen -r') and just pick up where you
left off.

Sounds like you're using a Mac, and you have your FTP client (Fetch?) set
up to automatically encode the file in MacBinary format before uploading.
Find this option somewhere in your FTP program's preferences and disable
it. Be sure to upload any binary files (ie: .jpg, .gif, .swf, .mp3, etc.) as raw data. You may be given the option at the time of upload.

This may or may not be a symptom of something bigger on the system. Please take check your settings to make sure that everything is correct. If they are, and you're still getting this message, try changing the phone number, and let us know immediately what number you were dialing into, and what time this happened.

These "exciting opportunities" are usually illegal and highly frowned upon. The most common scheme involves sending $1.00 to each of five people on the list, and you instruct them to add your name to the list and send it out to many different people. That way, the people who are on the list get to collect all sorts of money from all sorts of people who get copies of the original mail with their names on it. Please understand that this is illegal, and will be cause for the immediate suspension or termination of your account. And in case you're wondering, the Justice Department says that recent versions of the scam that feature recipe services, mailing lists, etc, are not any more legal than their predecessors, no matter what the authors of these messages might claim.

NO! Please do not email yourself multiple binaries. That is a lusermove of the first degree, and is frowned upon by the admins who read postmaster mail and see multiple "unable to create output" error messages because you have mailbombed yourself with binaries and gone over quota. It is *strongly* suggested that you use the save function of your newsreader to save these articles. In tin, you use the s command. Other software has other commands. If you ask us about your software, we may be able to help, or to point you in the right direction. Mailbombing yourself (and effectively mailbombing postmaster@martnet.com) with binaries is a Bad Thing!

The file extension must be either .epl or .eperl to use Embedded Perl (ie: index.eperl or index.epl). The files can be anywhere EXCEPT in your cgi-bin directory, and permissions should be chmoded 644 (read/write by you, readable by everyone else. The file does NOT need to be executable.) eperl files are server parsed, just like .shtml and php scripts, and with the exception of the embeded perl code, function just like any other html document (and not like cgi scripts.) It's that simple! Of course, you still need to know perl and it's command syntax, but that's a whole different ballgame (many books and Web Sites have information about programming in perl).

Here are two
quick and simple ways to save a web page for later viewing. When
you find a page you want to save, from the File menu, select Save
As. Give it a name you'll remember and use the .html or .htm extension
after the file name. This will allow you to view the file on your
browser while off-line. Unfortunately graphics will not be saved.
The alternative is to save it as a text file using the .txt file
name extension. This will allow you to view the text on the web
page in any word processor or text editor. If the text is a graphic
image like a logo, you won't be able to view it.

Other ISPs tend to kick you off-line after a short period of inactivity on your part, kind of like a screen saver. Martnet doesn't work quite the same way; our servers are configured to keep your connection open if there's traffic coming or going from your computer. For instance, you could start downloading a file, walk away, watch TV, walk the dog, etc. and the download would still be going. The only time Martnet will disconnect you is if you have had no activity (no data traveling between you and the web) for more than an hour.

There's a setting you might want to check that should clear up the
problem. Open up the Dial-Up Networking
folder. (Start->Programs->Accessories->Dial-Up Networking) and right click
on the Martnet connection. This will bring up a menu, and select
properties.
In the properties window, click on the 'server type' tab.
In this window, make sure that 'log onto network' is unchecked.
That should cut the amount of time for login..

Is your computer and modem in an air conditioned room and properly cooled?
Our internet service is not heat sensitive (we keep all of our equipment
in climate controled facilities) BUT heat can definitely cause problems
with copper phone cables (like the line your modem plugs into), especially
the bundles of cable the local phone companies use to connect residential
areas. You may want to contact your local phone company and have them test
your phone lines for interference and other potential problems (tell them
you are getting consistant data throughput rates of under 19.2k and insist
they test the line for free; they very likely will.)

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you probably could have prevented
the incident with a good commercial virus detection package that
automatically updates it's virus definitions daily.

We recommend Norton Anti-Virus (www.symantec.com). It runs on all flavors
of MicroSoft Windows, MacOS 7,8,9, and X (AKA NextStep 5), OS/2, Netware,
Solaris, AIX, and AS400/OS. Bet you didn't know there were so many
computing platforms out there, let alone viri that could wreak havoc on
those systems, eh?

Please note that MartNet does not do any kind of virus scanning on our
mail servers - the volume of mail that passes through our servers
precludes us from checking every message AND such systems are prone to
false alarms and flagging and deleting legitimate mail destined for our
customers. Mail Server level virus detection systems are primarily
designed to protect corporate Intranets which are connected to the
Internet through a firewall.

We HIGHLY recommend that ANY computer user install a good virus detection
software package on EVERY computer system they use, whether connected to
the Internet or not, AND be sure to keep their software up to date (update
virus definitions daily, or whenever you connect to the Internet for
maximum protection.) Also be sure to back up all important data on your
computer often, as NO virus detection software is 100% effective.

Also remember, while the vast majority of viruses affect systems running
some version of MicroSoft Windows and are spread via E-mail these days,
there are other ways to get a virus over the Internet, and there are known
viruses that affect MacOS, LINUX (yes there ARE destructive Linux viri out
there...) and just about every other modern Operating System, though these
viruses are far less common. A good commercial virus detection program
running on all your computers is the best way to prevent an infection, and
good backups are the only way to guarantee complete recovery when a virus
does slip past the detection software and infects your machine.

Read the Net-Abuse FAQ. JD Falk graciously hosts it at http://www.cybernothing.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq.html You need to understand that we cannot condone net abuse of any kind by users of our system. Two wrongs don't make a right. If you are having trouble getting a particular offsite user to stop sending you email, please contact support@martnet.com.

This is sometimes caused by the way colors are "mapped" for display. If you're a Windows user, minimizing then restoring your browser will usually solve this annoyance. Mac users can use WindowShade to roll up then pull down the browser window. Mac users can even try switching between the Finder and your browser.

There's only one minute left on that 2 hour download and suddenly it's interrupted. Yikes!!! No need to pull out your hair. If you're using Internet Explorer 4.x you can resume the download from where it got stopped. Simply keep the download site in your browser window and reconnect to the Net. Your download will automatically resume and be completed in a few short minutes.

Your username is the up to eight character all lowercase word you use in combination with your password to log into your MartNet account. It is also the part of your email address before the @ sign. Your email address is in the format username@martnet.com

Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) is a communications
method that allows you to use a modem and a telephone line to
directly connect your computer to the Internet. With this protocol,
you can browse the web, or access your Linux shell account.

There are six things, all seperated by spaces. For example, it might look like this:
01 3 4 * scriptname
Each of those values is as follows:
1. minute of the hour, 00 to 59
2. hour of the day, 00 to 32 (military time)
3. day of the month, 1 to 31
4. month of the year, 1 to 12
5. day of the week, sun, mon, tue,....
6. actual command to execute
* an asterisk that matches all possible values,
* a single integer that matches that exact value,
* a list of integers separated by commas (no spaces)
used to match any one of the values
* two integers separated by a dash (a range)
used to match any value within the range.

If you can't hear your modem dialing, and you get some sort of message on the screen like "Connection Timed Out", then your modem is not properly configured. Contact your modem's manufacturer or MartNet technical support for assistance.

If using netscape for your mail check in Options / News and Mail preferances/ Servers and make sure the Incoming and Outgoing fields say: martnet.com all in lower case letters. And that the POP user name has your login name. Do not add the @martnet.com or it won't connect to the mail server. If these are correct then when it asks or your password enter your password just as you did to log onto the service.

A mail filtering program has been implimented on our dialup network
to only allow users to send mail through Martnet mail servers. This is an
anti-spam measure that helps cut down on Spam problems and bandwidth
overloads on the network. Today we are adding a few of the most popular
free mail providers (yahoo, bigfoot, hotmail, etc..) to our allowed mail
relaying list so that you will be able send mail through our mail servers
but with your return address from your other email provider. Your outgoing
mail server on your mail programs account setups will have to be changed
to the martnet outgoing mail servers. (either mail.martnet.com if you are
a dial up only customer or postoffice.YOURDOMAIN.com if you are a hosting
customer)

Sometimes web sites are unreachable because the remote server hosting the site is down or offline for some reason. In such instances, you will generally get some kind of "server not responding, try again later" error. This kind of outage is NOT something MartNet staff can help with, unless of course it is our own server!
If you're not getting to *any* websites, (google.com, cnn.com, martnet.com) then first disconnect your MartNet connection, and try connecting again. If it still isn't working, make sure your DNS numbers are correct and call our customer care center.

A mail filtering program has been implimented on our dialup network
to only allow users to send mail through Martnet mail servers. This is an
anti-spam measure that helps cut down on Spam problems and bandwidth
overloads on the network. Today we are adding a few of the most popular
free mail providers (yahoo, bigfoot, hotmail, etc..) to our allowed mail
relaying list so that you will be able send mail through our mail servers
but with your return address from your other email provider. Your outgoing
mail server on your mail programs account setups will have to be changed
to the martnet outgoing mail servers. (either mail.martnet.com if you are
a dial up only customer or postoffice.YOURDOMAIN.com if you are a hosting
customer)

Sometimes we can. If you are a "dial up" customer, it will cost you $6. If it's just a mail account, we can usually just switch it over for free. However, if you want to change the username of your primary account where your website is hosted, it will require an additional fee because of the reconfiguration that we'd have to do. Give us a call and we can figure out the cost and also if you really need to do it. In most of the cases where customers have requested a username change, they found out they didn't need to at all.

The vast majority of disconnect problems we have seen were caused by outdated or incorrect modem drivers. Check with your modem manufacturer to make sure you have the most current driver, and also double check your system configuration and make sure you are using the correct driver for your particular brand and model of modem. The modem manufacturer or vendor who sold you the computer with a pre-installed modem can assist you in making sure the system is up to date and configured correctly. If you have recently upgraded your computer to Windows 98 or 2000, you may need an updated Modem Driver for your modem. Check with the modem manufacturer to see if this is the case. (most modem manufacturers have excellent support available on-line, with the ability to download whatever updates you may need.) If you have never upgraded your computer, or your computer came with Windows 98 pre-installed, you should still check and see if an updated driver is available. A lot of drivers written for Windows 95 have problems running under Windows 98 and 2000, and some manufacturers were slow to fix their drivers, so an older driver may have come with your computer or modem when you purchased it. If you are using a 56K modem, make sure it supports the v.90 standard for 56K connections. Check your modem documentation if you are not sure. If you have a K-Flex or X-2 modem, you must upgrade it to support the v.90 standard (most manufacturers provide free software upgrades for their K-Flex and X-2 modems. Contact your modem manufacturer for information, software, and instructions. If you do not know the brand / model of modem you have, check the Modem control panel (MacOS 8.x, Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000) or contact the vendor who sold you the computer.) Before your modem dials, it is issued a command that prepares it for dialing a particular service. This command is called an "initialization string". The problem is most likely caused by your modem receiving an incorrect initialization string. (under most Operating Systems, this initialization string is sent by the driver software, which is why it is imperitive that you have the correct, most up to date driver available for your brand and model of modem.) Find out the brand/model of your modem, and then verify the correct modem is selected in your dialer software. If your modem is not listed, try selecting a generic 14.4, 28.8, 33.6, or 56K / V.90 (depending on what you have), and using this generic string: "AT&F&C1&D2" (without the quotes). If that doesn't give you a consistent connection you will have to enter a 'custom modem' in your dialer software, and manually enter an initialization string from your modem's manual. Consult your dialer software's documentation or your modem manufacturer for instructions and a recommended initialization string for a PPP connection. Here are some links to where you can find information on modems and init strings: http://www.ntr.net/~bud/initstring/ http://www.bestdata.com/init.htm

This error might have several causes, Including any of the following: The host you are connecting to may be down, try again. thehost you are connecting to may be busy or not have a connection open. Try connecting to another host machine, and / or check your dialing software and make sure you are still connected to MartNet.

Why doesn't my modem connect at it's rated speed (ie: 56K)? Check your port speed and make sure it is set at 19,200 or higher for 14.4 modems, and 38,400 or higher for 28.8 modems, and 57,600 for 56K modems. Consult your computer's help system for instructions on how to do this. Telephone lines are analog, and as a result the quality of the signal degrades with distance and other factors. Connection at 28.8K or higher requires crystal-clear line quality. You will sometimes connect at 26.4K or 24K, and on noisier connections 21.6K, and sometimes even lower. Line quality, modem quality, and even the weather can have an impact on your connection speed. Note that Bell Atlantic does not guarantee the quality of their lines for data transfer above 22.5K, and some additional line conditioning equipment may need to be installed ot your location to improve the quality of your Analog phone line. You may have a K-Flex, X-2, or V.Fast Class modem. When 56K and 28.8K modems were first introduced, a few competing protocols emerged that weren't compatible with one another. V.FC, K-Flex, and X-2 were all introduced, but unfortunately never became an industry standard. Most modems in use today use the industry standards V.34 or V.90. The modems MartNet uses are compatible with the V.90 standard, which incorperates older standards such as V.34.

Here's the deal. I don't go around randomly suggesting that users leave and use other ISPs. If I have suggested that you seek the services of another provider, it's because you've repeatedly indicated that you are not happy here, for whatever reason, and because I feel that we will not be meeting your needs in the immediate future. For example, if there is a technical problem which seems insurmountable after repeated discussions between you and support@martnet.com, and it seems that we can not make you happy, I will generally suggest that you seek the services of one of our many fine colleague-ISPs. This is *not* because I don't think we have a responsibility to be responsive to the users. It is because I feel that we should not take your money if we can not make you a happy, satisfied, internet-loving net.geek! MartNet isn't attempting to be "all things to all people" or anything. We know that other providers do some things that we don't, and we do some things others don't, and there should be no hard feelings because of a referral to another provider who might be able to make your Internet Experience more of what you want.